MOUNTAIN WEST HEIGHT MEANS ELEVATION, NOT JUST PLAYER SIZE

To construct a basketball program from sea level in the Mountain West a coach needs more than the building blocks of talent. He or she needs to put up some mental scaffolding, because the coast dwellers often find themselves stuck between a Rocky and a hard breath.

There is only one sea level university in the conference and that’s San Diego State. Opponents will see no signs in the visiting locker room at Viejas Arena reading: “Welcome to sea level.”

When New Mexico visits the Aztecs tonight in a crucial league game at Viejas, you’d like to believe State will be at a huge advantage, what with The Show and all, making it the greatest home court/field advantage any San Diego sports team has enjoyed. But that’s not necessarily the case.

Not only are the Lobos good — like the Aztecs, they’re 20-4, tied for the conference lead, and now have won five straight, their slimmest margin of victory 10 points — but researchers tell us athletes living and training at altitude who travel to lower levels retain a high content of red blood cells for up to two weeks, and those little things can carry more oxygen. There’s a reason long distance runners such as Meb Keflezighi train at Mammoth, and it’s not just for the scenery.

There’s no fix, other than to get out of the mountainous conference, and that’s what SDSU soon will be doing. Until then, it’s up and down. Remember, it’s not only the altitude, but the travel. Some of these places are more easily accessible by Conestoga.

Aztecs men’s coach Steve Fisher and women’s coach Beth Burns both ran programs in the Big Ten, where the road is tough. But they’ll stack up the Mountain West against any conference.

“No question,” Fisher said. “I haven’t seen a recent study, but I know three years ago the Mountain West was second only to the Big Ten when it came to difficulty winning games on the road. You talk about altitude, but it can be an adventure just getting to the buildings.”

Of course BYU and Utah, two tough basketball places, have left the Mountain West. “Big difference,” Fisher admitted. But this remains a good basketball league. Only one school, Boise State, is below .500. Three teams — SDSU, UNLV and New Mexico — have won 20 and Wyoming and Colorado State are 18-6 and 15-8, respectively.

“For the longest time, we never mentioned altitude,” Fisher said. “Kawhi (Leonard) always had problems with it; he’d get sick. When we went to Wyoming this year we were going to substitute a little bit quicker, especially early. From history I know you quickly become exhausted and you’re usually better your second stint in the game.”

One of State’s problems is that it has but nine scholarship players, with seven seeing the great majority of duty, while UNLV and New Mexico go at least 10 deep. Fisher noted the Lobos have 10 players averaging more than 10 minutes a game. So, when in the clouds, Fisher has to watch it more closely, and leans on assistants Brian Dutcher and Mark Fisher to keep an eye out for exhaustion.